I watched CNN for hours on end, as good news is nice to hear, and I repeatedly heard pundits analyze everything, including their own coverage of the election. One of these talking heads said that Obama would bring talented and bright people back into national government. It seems the bright ones sought employment in the private sector, as the Bush regime obviously had no use for them, and the public work that did exist was uninspiring. Obama's message of thought, thoughtfulness, intelligence, and inclusiveness resonates through the well-studied; a return to a Kennedy-like era of the best people running the big show seems to be in store. A similar thing happened with the rise and fall of bottle service in the nightlife world.

When bottle service took over the scene, the artistic types (flamboyant, charismatic club owner/operators) gave way to the bookish types (the suits, the businessman). These latter guys invited their friends to come in and buy bottles, thus creating the club rut were now in. Perhaps we can finally break out of that rut with an Obama-like resurgence of creativity.

I had a conversation with David Jaffee about what a bright lad like him is doing with his future. David graduated from Cornell in 2004 with a degree in finance. Born in Monticello, he is the son of a Jewish doctor who, because of prejudice, never pursued a career on Wall Street. Like his friends, David was going for the money. He had visions of Ferraris and women and condos and women and Rolex's and women urging him on, and he put in the one hundred hours a week to make his dreams come true. He was surprised when the girls he wanted weren’t impressed with his chosen profession. He needed to blow up his bar rap and -- since he and his buddies were spending money on bottles, anyway -- he decided to get into the club biz.

Stints as a sub-promoter with Jon Gabel, Impulse Productions, and the Velvet List progressed into throwing his own events at venues like Mansion, Cain, Home, and GuestHouse. He found himself making some real loot (three grand a week was not unusual) and, more importantly, the girls he wanted actually liked his bar rap. The finance gig is bonus-dependent, and now he feels fortunate to have a job. I caught up to him a couple of weeks ago, and he originally had thoughts of choosing one job or the other -- but now, with the economy the way it is, having both has its advantages. He feels lucky to have his finance job as so many are losing theirs. The 300k in bonus loot is not happening this year. Two weeks ago, promotion was a safety net, but now it may be David’s primary source of income. He might consider owning a joint one day. Finance is a shady business -- “they rob you in subtle ways ... nightlife is more reliable. You get paid in seven days or [I] just close shop and move the party to one of a hundred competitors. It’s easy to move around, and there are no human resource department bureaucracies or entanglements. It's OK, let's try it; bang -- it works, we do it again, or else I move on.”

He claims that nightlife is easy and feels that in the near term the markets are stagnating, except for maybe “a dead cat bounce.” David tried to explain this to me, but I majored in foosball. He's concerned that the Barack boys will create more government oversight and that NYC might not be as a competitive against other world markets, like London or Dubai. He's torn between two worlds and thinks maybe he will find a way to make both work for him as one concept. With the finance markets becoming a lot less reliable, and the real estate bubble bursting, the club life will continue to be attractive to these dudes who can raise loot and maybe bring in some friends to buy enough booze to pay the rent and liquor bills. Another generation of club executives are being bred and raised just as the club economy needs them the most -- or at least, needs their money. I’ll check in on David in a few months and we'll see what has become of him, but maybe we'll just read about him on Page Six linked to some supermodel.